Meet the Client: Amy Nesheim, Contract Lawyer for Entrepreneurs and Creatives

Legal. Ugh.

Not only is it scary—it’s also complex and expensive. Am I right? And most of us didn’t get into creative work to learn more about business law… but it’s always hovering there:

• Is my website GDPR compliant?

• Would my contracts hold up in court if I ever had to sue a client for payment?

• Would my contracts hold up in court if—God forbid—a client tried to sue me?

So it seems like a pretty worthy expense to chat with a lawyer… but at $400+ per hour, and maybe 10+ hours to put together a complete legal package, seldom can a one- or two-person startup afford it right at the start. Especially when so many of us were thrust into this world after losing a job, or going into business semi-spontaneously.

Enter Amy Nesheim, a contract attorney who sells templates that meet that middle ground between DIY and having a lawyer on retainer. Her brand is called Artful Contracts, a legal company where the brand isn’t stiff and superior, but instead accessible and genuine.

ArtfulContracts.com is full to the brim with options specific to the many business models used by modern creatives:

• Contract templates for coaches, service providers, and online educators/course creators

• Courses on topics like content protection (your original work can be stolen or replicated easily online!), the kinds of marketing claims you can and can’t make, and website legal (complete with templates for disclaimers, a privacy policy, and a GDPR compliance policy)

• Assistance with white labeling (if you’re an influencer and you don’t know about white labeling, you want to!)

• Trademark help

• The option to hire Amy directly for a legal strategy session

As a photographer who loves to work with women who help other women in business, you can imagine how eager I was to get Amy on my calendar when she reached out about a shoot!

Amy opted for a half-day session with me, split between The Valentine Room and Sassy Biscuit (a café in Dover, NH). A half-day gave us plenty of time for staging a variety of scenes, making outfit changes, and shooting each scene from as many angles and focal lengths as possible—important because Amy’s social media manager, Stephanie, was looking for options for Instagram posts, Instagram Stories, Amy’s website, Pinterest, and maybe even Facebook ads!

Amy’s mood board was clean and straightforward: She was going for bright, friendly, accessible, and professional. We wanted to communicate quickly with visuals what she does and whom she does it for, in a way that would make those people want to learn more, rather than shut down because they were intimidated. And I think we were able to reach these goals!

You’ll notice from the images that we got that in many cases, we shot with a blank white wall overhead or off to the side, creating that negative space needed for text in situations like Instagram Story ads, Facebook ads, and website banners, and we did an even mix of eye-contact and no-eye-contact shots.

For a long-game content marketing strategy, this is key. Often I tell my students and clients that coming to a shoot with a specific shot list will help them get more out of their photography budget, but with half-day shoots for service providers like Amy, whose communications happen almost exclusively online, creating neutral images that can be used for multiple purposes (webinars and website banners; Pinterest pins and Instagram Stories) will mean that over the course of a quarter or year, the images can get more mileage.

My inspiration for this session personally was a mix of Amy Porterfield and Jenna Kutcher—a clean and fresh coaching vibe like Amy’s, and a relaxed, candid feel like Jenna’s.

And for our first time working together, Amy was such a great model! So at ease on camera. Plus she was fun company. I loved working with her.

I say it about plenty of shoots, but as 2021 comes to a close, I genuinely think this one may have been one of my favorite shoots of the year!

Be sure to check out ArtfulContracts.com if you’re a coach, freelancer, contract service provider, affiliate marketer, influencer, course creator, or any other kind of digital entrepreneur and you’re looking for accessible and affordable means of protecting your business!

If you’re ready to get strategic with the photos in your own business, you’re ready for my FREE Profitable Photo Checklist! Simply pop your name and best email into the fields below to get started!

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